Tonight we had dinner at an Italian restaurant that is not wine-friendly; in fact, their wine list is terrible. So we settled for iced tea with dinner, then checked our stock at home for something interesting to use as an after-dinner sipper. Neither of us was in the mood for port. I eventually pulled the Duboeuf Viognier (Vin de Pays de l'Ardeche) simply because we hadn't yet tried it, and I thought it might be palate-cleansing. Sure enough, we found it to be a very clean, flinty, rather austere wine, with a slight vanilla note on its quite respectable finish. Not a dessert wine by any means, but it suited our needs to wash away the stewed tomatoes and trout. And only $9.99.

Carole and I love Viognier, but we find so many have too much heat on them. It is tough to ripen the grape, balance the acids and not end up with 25 brix, which makes a pretty alcohol intense wine..... Glad you liked this one. Do you happen to know the % alcohol?

The label says alcohol content is 13.5%. I would have guessed it to be just a tad less than that, but it's nicely balanced IMO. The alcohol becomes more noticeable as the wine opens up over a period of an hour or so.

This isn't a wine that is readily available locally; in fact, since I purchased a few bottles about six months ago, I've not seen a one show up on retailers' shelves. Just another of the vagaries of our obsolete distribution system. But I'll be on the lookout for more.

Found and enjoyed a bottle several years ago, and haven't seen one since. Near as we can figure it is still tightly allocated. Scant quantites come in with huge shipments of other Duboeuf, and it turns up in small numbers wherever D-beef is found.

This wine seems to be quite versatile. The lovely wife decided to prepare chicken tamales and tortilla soup tonight, so I grabbed the opportunity to open another bottle... and we weren't disappointed. Faint peach and apricot nuances emerged in the presence of the queso and jalapenos to make for a very pleasant pairing. It even held up to the dessert of fresh angelfood cake and strawberries. Unconventional, probably....but it worked.